Poet/poetic source: Luigi Tansillo (1510-1568)
Poetic form/text type: sonnet
Music composer: Giaches de Wert (1535-1596)
Music source: Il sesto libro de madrigali a5 (Scotto press, Venice, 1577)
| Original Italian | Translation |
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Valli nemiche al sol, superbe rupi che minacciate al ciel, profonde grotte, d'onde non parton mai silenzio e notte: aer, che gl'occhi d'atra nebbia occupi precipitati sassi, alti dirupi, ossa insepolte, erbose mura e rotte, d'uomini albergo, ed ora a tal condotte, che temono ir fra voi serpenti e lupi. Erme campagne, abbandonati lidi, ove mai voce d'uom l'aria non fiede: ombra son io dannata a pianto eterno, ch'a pianger vengo la mia morta fede; e spero, al suon de' disperati stridi, se non si piega il ciel, mover l'inferno! |
Valleys inimical to the sun, high cliffs that menace the sky, fathomless caves from which silence and night never leave, air, that clouds the eyes with Stygian fog. Precipitous rocks, fallen precipices, disinterred bones, broken and overgrown walls, shelter for men and now what as led me to such that serpents and wolves among you fear to go. Lonely fields, abandoned shores, where the voice of man never is heard: I am the shadow damned to eternal lament, who weeping comes with my dead faith, and I hope, among the sounds of desperate cries, if heaven bends not, then to move hell! |